Premier League: Half Time Report – Arsenal vs. Manchester City
Manchester City travelled to the Emirates knowing that they had a giant task on their hands. This was because City had not won away to Arsenal in over 25 years. Nonetheless, City seemed more than confident that if they were to beat Arsenal, then tonight would be the night, as the City squad was now operating at almost its full potential. However, they were without http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mario-Balotelli-c23937 and David Silva, both picking up knee injuries and were forced to sit out the match.
The line-ups for the match were as follows:
Arsenal: http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Robin-van-Persie-c31380
Subs: http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nicklas-Bendtner-c27726
Manchester City: http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/James-Milner-c17706, Carlos Tevez, Jo
Subs: http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Patrick-Vieira-c29316
With a jam-packed stadium, the game kicked off on the referee's whistle. From the very first minute, Arsenal were producing all the constructive football. The team seemed to be out there to prove a point and were looking to go all guns out, to do so.
In only the 2nd minute, the home team had its first real chance of the game. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Samir-Nasri-c32360, Arsenal's player of the season so far, danced into the City box before finding Jack Wilshere. The young English midfielder then squared the ball across the goal, but it just managed to evade Robin Van Persie. However, the threat from Arsenal seemed to be very real, early on.
In the 9th minute, Van Persie produced some fine touches on the edge of the box, to open himself up and produce space, for him to shoot. The player, after creating the space, went on to smash a low drive, which had Joe Hart beaten all ends up, but not the post. The ball, despite being hit with precision, managed to bounce off the woodwork and City survived yet another scare.
In the 28th minute, Arsenal had their next great chance of the game. After enduring an attack from City, the Gunners broke on the counter. Nasri then went on to tee Cesc Fabregas, whose shot went on to smack the woodwork. The rebounded shot fell to Walcott, whose effort managed to bounce off the crossbar as well, but the winger was offside to begin with and that effort would have not counted either way.
From then on Arsenal managed to put together a number of passes, but did not really test Hart again. On the other hand, City seemed to look almost incapable of attacking the Gunners. It was quite unclear as to what Roberto Mancini's tactics were, as every time the team seemed to try to attack Arsenal, they would fail miserably.
After witnessing his team being dominated for 45 minutes, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mancini-c23323 and his team were more than relived when the referee blew the whistle to signal the end of the half. As a result, both teams marched on into the tunnels, to try to get their tactics right, before the start of the second half. Both, Arsene Wenger and Mancini would have a lot to talk about to their team, if they hope to walk away with the three points.
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